Thoughts on the value of exposure as a measure of success in brand development
—erik schmitt

A few years ago I was the lead designer on a project to re-design the San Francisco Zoo brand. Long after the new brand was launched, in the summer of 2007, the identity managed to receive very broad exposure. A group of young men had taunted a tiger at the zoo until it lept out of its enclosure and attacked them. One of the men was killed and two others were injured. Of course, the sensational nature of this event generated massive media interest. For a few weeks on the news I was treated to the identity I had designed juxtaposed next to a Siberian tiger and the headline DEADLY TIGER ATTACK.

This experience made me reflect on the nature of success in brand development. We often equate exposure with success but is it really? Of course this was negative exposure but it still begged the question. Sometimes as designers we confuse the two, thinking the reach of the work we do for high profile clients like Nike or Chase equals cultural impact (two brands that have also seen their share of negative exposure). After all, the brand development done by designers for these companies is seen by millions because of their huge budgets and broad reach. Is that a measure of success itself?

Over the years, we've developed working relationships with many small clients and cultural institutions to help them with their brands. The transformations that occur as a result of the work we do for them can be huge. As opposed to large corporate accounts where we are often asked to provide just a series of refinements to an existing brand structure, these projects often require the complete construction or transformation of the entire brand. The exposure on these projects is often minimal. But the impact is measurable and can be huge.

One reason for this is that access to key decision makers is easier, which is essential in creating the working relationship between client and designer necessary for outstanding solutions. These decision makers are often out of reach in large companies. Another reason is simple scale. Fortune 500 companies are often like ocean liners—once they start to move in one direction, it is very difficult to change course.
 
In turn, the work done for start ups or cultural entities is often on a limited budget and has more limited reach. Design, advertising and marketing are very focused and limited to target audiences. So, the work we create for them may not end up on the nightly news, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Exposure alone, after all, is great for the ego, but a poor measure of the success of communication strategies.